DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected militants kidnapped four people, including an army officer who was sitting in a mosque in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban to receive mourners after attending his father’s funeral, officials said Thursday.
No one claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s kidnapping of Lt. Col. Khalid Khan and three others in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan.
Local authorities said a video of Khan, showing him in the custody of the Pakistani Taliban, was sent anonymously to his family. In the video, Khan is seen sitting in front of armed men and urging the government to accept the demands of the Pakistani Taliban. It was unclear what were their demands.
There was no immediate comment by the military or the government.
A local police official, Ikram Ullah, said efforts were underway to trace and recover the abducted persons: Khan, his two brothers who are also government officers, and one of his nephews.
Though the Pakistani Taliban often targets security forces in the northwest, such kidnappings are rare.
The group, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have a strong presence in the restive northwest. It is separate from the Afghan Taliban but allied to it, and it has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
The kidnappings came days after Baloch separatists, who are allies of TTP, shot and killed more than 50 people, including 14 security forces, in one of the deadliest attacks in the southwestern Balochistan province.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif traveled to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, on Thursday where he received a briefing about ongoing operations against insurgents, officials said.
Later, Sharif vowed to eliminate terrorism in televised remarks, saying those “terrorists” who orchestrated the recent attacks in Balochistan are enemies of Pakistan and would be dealt with an iron hand.
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Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar, Pakistan.
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